Le chignon d'Olga

'Le Chignon d'Olga' is a film about the lives and loves of an affluent, liberal family. As with many French films, the characters exude a natural sexiness (in a way that is not seen in most Hollywood movies), and the acting, and the detail of the script, are both good. But the film made me feel a little old - viewed from a certain perspective, there's an inconsequentiality about these teenage affairs and while the plot operates in the context of a deeper story (the recent death of the children's mother) the treatment of this is muted. But if it's a slight tale, it also feels true, and lead actress Nathalie Boutefeu has a lovely, interesting face that director James Bonnell makes good use of.

A tale of provincial life in the south of France focusing on the lives of two young people, brother and sister, who live together with their recently widowed father. It is as languid and slow moving as the summer heat.

Very little appears to happen. What story there is is oblique, subliminal, played out in peripheral vision. If you stick with it, and I strongly recommend that you do, it may linger in your mind long after the closing credits roll. I only began to really appreciate how much I'd enjoyed it the day after I'd watched it. It is an acutely observed, heart-warming, touching study of the realisation that must come to every adult - that it's time to leave the comfort and security of the family home, to make our own way in the world, to become ourselves, and to face all the pain and challenges that involves.

When I read the Director was only twenty three in one sense I wasn't surprised. The film, for me, perfectly captures the joy and pain of semi independent youth. It is a film that had to be made with these feelings fresh in mind. That the Director does this with such style, so beautifully, so subtly, is what really impressed me. The title, referring to a female character's hairstyle, is typical of the film. Nothing is addressed directly but the film, taken as a whole, is a wonderful evocation of a moment in life that I'm sure will strike a chord in everyone who watches it - even if you can't exactly put your finger on the reason why. It's charming, it's quintessentially French, and it's beautiful. I loved it.

I almost gave up on Le Chignon d'Olga. It was late and i was tired. The film started with an endless array of characters all being introduced within a short space of time. Quite frankly, i was lost and couldn't figure out who was who.

Glad i stuck with it tho cos, once i got a handle on the characters, i found the film thoroughly enjoyable.

I can see why director Jérôme Bonnell is compared to Eric Rohmer. They seemingly both like to concentrate on the small nuances of peoples everyday lives, and as another reviewer mentioned, these type of films never get made in Hollywood. I, for one, hope the French never stop making these small intriguing films (this one was shot for under 1,000,000).

I will be watching for further offerings from Jérôme Bonnell. French cinema seems to be in safe hands.

Recommended.

zzzz..

Like a previous commenter, I, too didn't know where the film was going,but was glad I stuck with it. I found Bonnell's story deceptively simple. It basically tells of Julien's obsession with Olga, a beautiful clerk at a bookstore whom he fantasizes about seducing. Once he realizes that she is a wife and mother, his obsession is exorcized and that Alice, a very close friend, is, in fact, the perfect woman for him. But the story is much more complex than that. Every character has some personal demon that their fighting with, but at the same time have people around them who care. and in the end, problems are not really solved, no dreams are fulfilled, the characters just continue to live with their pain but are able to deal with it because they have people around who love them.

I like the ending, as in the beginning, where we hear julien's piano playing. It signifies to the audience that life, as Bonnell sees it, is not a continuous flow, it's a series of stop.. starts... Emotions are fickle.. People do and say stupid things, fantasies fester and become paralyzing, the pot is stirred, and basically all you can do is wait it out until the pot boils over, than you can continue on with life.

Hubert Benhamdine has a distinctive presence in this rather inconsequential film but promising though his performance is it did not save the film from teetering on the edge of boredom. He plays Julien, a young man who becomes attracted to a young woman in a French provincial bookshop, Olga, and as the poster tells us she has a chignon. End of Olga more or less, which was a pity as I would have probably found her life more interesting than Julien's family. There is also a tedious repetition of a Charlie Chaplin film which probably meant to show the pratfalls of life, and in this film there are plenty of them and none produced a smile on my face. Rohmer has been mentioned but I am afraid that is as misleading as the title of the film. Rohmer would have observed more lightly his characters, and this film does not. It maybe me as others seem to find its charm. I saw it years ago, forgot it and watched it again, and probably it will be forgotten again. I will miss Olga though and the opening promised something it did not deliver.